Where In The World Is Evan?

Unfortunatly words escape me in describing the fantastic time I have been/am having, however I will try.

The sea canoeing in Thailand (amoungst the uninhabited islands off the coast of Phuket) was really good, and by far the highlight of the trip until then. We travelled about 45 mins off the coast in a ferry and then launched the canoes into the open sea. Our guide then took us throught some incredibly beautifull rock caves carved into the limestone cliff walls of the surrounding islands by the ebb and flow of the ocean.

One of the caves was so tight and small and both sides of the canoe got stuck on razor sharp rocks and we were trapped with nowhere to move as the ceiling was only 5 cm above the tops of my my toes (we were lying flat on our backs). However, Thang, our local guide was able to free us by forcing the canoe throught the gap by pushing the oar off the roof of the cave On the other side of the caves were gorgeous lagoons filled with mangrove trees and surrounded by 50m tall cliffs on all sides.

The water that we were canoeing in was so warm that it felt like a heated swimming pool, which made swimming in it later on very very nice.

We stayed out on the ocean until after it got dark, and then made traditional Thai water god offerings. We then paddled out to sea in pitch black darkness to visit another cave to release the offerings. It was really cool to see the incents and cadles on the offerings lighting the inside of the cave as they floated out to sea. One of the nicest things however was that at night there is phosphoresant plankton in the water and so every movement you make leaves a trail of yellow lights in the water.

As you guys may have realised from the subject title I am currently in Nepal - Pokhara to be exact. However you’ll have to wait for proper details about the amazing stuff that’s happened to me here, as I’ve got to go meet up with some people for breakfast now.

I’m leaving on the trek into the mountains later today so it will probaly be over a week before I can contact anyone again. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the super hot weather I’ve been hearing about in Melbourne.

Check out the Kathmandu photo gallery.